INDUSTRY

This week we saw debuts from both Tyler, The Creator, and Young Thug. Neither artist is known to play on mainstream radio (though Thug gets a fair share of rap radio play), but each has a pretty supportive fanbase.

Nicki Minaj dominates the charts this week, although, there is one artist she isn't able to dominate: you guessed it, Taylor Swift. No matter, Nicki outdid sales projections with her first week on shelves, after moving a sold 244,00 units; basically 100k more than we expected. Magic? Or did Cash Money snatch up 100k copies? We'll let you be the judge.

This week Trey Songz's Trigga makes its debut on the Billboard 200 at #1, giving Trey his second #1 album in a row, following up Chapter V. Although Chapter V sold more records in its opening week (135k), Trigga came close under it with 105k. That's still a respectable follow up-- something we unfortunately cannot say about Robin Thicke.

Coincidence or competition? One-time couple Jennifer Lopez and Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs have both recently been involved in struggles to obtain the rights to cable music channel Fuse TV. Now it appears as if J. Lo's NuvoTV has beaten out Combs' Revolt TV in a bidding war to acquire the network.

Some might say Suge Knight isn't having the best year, and it's only just begun. The co-founder of Death Row Records started off 2015 with a murder charge to his name, not to mention, he's suffering from a few medical issues stemming from 2014's shooting.

Last week we saw PARTYNEXTDOOR make a relatively strong debut on the Billboard 200, however he has not maintained his ranking this week, having fallen below Billboard's top 100. We've got one new entry this week, coming from the underground crew signed to Tech N9ne's Strange Music, Ces Cru. They were able to sell just over 6k, making a debut at #40.

Ask most Hip-Hop fans who’s been running the rap game the past three years, and the answers would mostly be the same; Kendrick Lamar…Drake…maybe some J. Cole. Even with somewhat of an agreement, there’s no science to this. There’s no exact formula of determining who is on top. Is it record sales?

Perhaps Snoop made a poor career choice by switching from
hip hop to reggae. If he truly wanted to
move units he should consider an R&B persona. Rhythm and Blues singers have been performing
mightily on these charts as of late, but this week they took over fully. Only one “Hip Hop” album managed to move any significant

This week we find the master of all parodies, Weird Al Yankovic, take over Billboard's #1 spot with his new album Mandatory Fun. There's not much new on here in the way of r'n'b and rap, as we await the debut numbers for Common's new release, Nobody's Smiling.

While Taylor Swift's 1989 takeover of the charts continues, many of our r'n'b and hip-hop artists have been pushed down. Teyana Taylor actually finds herself the highest-up, debuting at #19, with her G.O.O.D. album VII. The album made a solid enough debut, moving 16,000 copies opening week, while Azealia Banks followed further behind with her own debut album Broke With Expensive Taste.

While Yelawolf managed a big debut this week, topping his previous album peak of 27 by hitting number 3 on the Billboard 200, rap lost a fair bit of ground. While Wale started off strong with a number one debut, he's fallen 10 or more spots every subsequent week, coming in this cycle at 31. Young Thug is also having a pretty rough time, failing to make the top 20 last week, and now falling to 44.

Last week was a game changer at the top of the Top 100. After a few weeks of relative consistency, the Top Ten was washed out in a wave of new music. Keep track of how those songs are doing below.
10) The Game ft. Dej Loaf &ndash; Ryda

Kid Ink's sophomore effort hit the Billboard 200 this week, although it didn't perform quite as well as his debut My Own Lane. My Own Lane pushed 50,000 copies out opening week, which was deemed a strong release, especially for an independently-signed rapper's debut.

10) 50 Cent ft. Jeremih, 2 Chainz and T.I. &ndash; Get Low
Like all of 50&rsquo;s recent stabs at radio play, this single fell off fast. &ldquo;Get Low&rdquo; dropped eight spots from its first-week appearance at number two, landing at the bottom end of our top ten.
9) Jeezy ft. Rich Homie Quan &ndash; I Might

This week we see one new entry below, belonging to October's Very Own's PARTYNEXTDOOR. The r'n'b singer is relatively new, having released his first official mixtape PARTYNEXTDOOR just last summer. Nonetheless, he's already developed quite the loyal following, undoubtedly due (in part) to his affiliation with Drizzy.

This week three new rappers entered the Billboard 200, with Future's Honest topping them all sales-wise (we'll let you be the judge on the music). Asher Roth, who has calmed way down from his College Rap days, moved under 10,000 units with his new album RetroHash, released independently. Future and Iggy Azalea also came in neck-and-neck with their respective albums Honest and The New Classic.

After Charts Don't Lie took a hiatus last week, we are back again this week just in time to highlight three important debuts on the Billboard 200. YG's My Krazy Life, Kevin Gates' By Any Means and Freddie Gibbs & Madlib's Pinata.

This week our one new entry belongs to Mariah Carey, who recently released her umpteeth album, Me. I Am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse. While the sales show she doesn't quite have that star power she once did, it's still a respectable debut of #3.

This week we only have one new entry so to speak of, and it's r'n'b/pop singer Jennifer Hudson with her newly-released JHUD. The album didn't do very much damage on the charts, but it still enters within the Billboard's top 10. Chris Brown, though, is still moving more than JHUD with his album X's second week on shelves.

This week J. Lo returns to the Billboard 200, although her opening week numbers are not as strong as previous releases from the pop star. Back in the 2000s when J. Lo was really in her prime (although we cannot deny she is still looking hot these days), the singer would easily sell upwards of 200,000 units opening week. However her comeback album, A.K.A., didn't even manage to break the 50k mark.

While Taylor Swift remains the reigning queen of the Billboard 200, we get a few new entries from the hip-hop sphere this week. Rae Sremmurd, as projected, landed a top 10 Billboard 200 debut with SremmLife. They even did one better, making it into the top 5 by sliding in at #5.